Drawing has once again come to my attention. In a recent group critique, a peer of mine commented that I ‘just do whatever’ regarding my painting process. The context was about the drawing element in painting. My friend feels a great need to prove her ability to draw through her paintings but I feel that because she feels the need, she doesn’t really understand the full aspect of what drawing is. In my view drawing should be a relevant aspect of an image without it being obvious.
The verb ‘draw’ is very common and has many functions. The Fine Art definition is a picture or diagram made with a pencil, pen, or crayon rather than paint. Does that mean that a painting cannot be a drawing or drawn? Of course not! Other meanings of Drawing could be to come to, or arrive at a point in time or in a process – Draw to a close. Another example is moving somewhere in a slow steady way. In fact the word is incredibly adaptable to many situations and a lot of them could also be related to Art. For Fine Artists drawing can be quite complicated. Drawing on a two-dimensional surface, elements of composition, dexterity, knowledge of tone etc all play important roles. A traditionally accepted way of drawing would be to represent a real object or subject in a two-dimensional format, adhering as closely as possible to an augmented, tonal reality.
Another definition of drawing I remember hearing about is that of a child – to ‘draw a line around your think’. I personally like this one the best, not only because it uses less words but it also says so much more! Drawing is never just one thing that is simply defined and it often has a very personal connection to people. I was greatly aggravated recently by a friend who said that I do not draw when I paint, I ‘just do whatever…’. This comment in the context was about dexterity, skill, and intentions relating to the drawn line. Therefore possibly implying that my paintings do not seem to be painstakingly planned out and executed to a high level of accuracy. The comment angered me for a while but actually it came to my attention that I never intend that my paintings are obviously ‘drawn’. So in retrospect the comment was actually rather congratulatory, although perhaps missing the intention. I must keep faith in my convictions and be glad that I have clearly achieved one of my goals.
In my paintings I absolutely strive for a sense of effortlessness and accept an element of chance – paint will do what it do! The fact that I am striving to create images that do not seem like they could possibly have been created must leave people thinking that I do not need to try to achieve strong images. The opposite is true. There is an incredible amount of labour, preparation, research, and patience that goes into my work. The drawing is absolutely fundamental to my practice. I can totally understand how other people might view my work because I do not like paintings to look over laboured or forced. Sometimes the paintings are incredibly over laboured but never forced. I paint patiently until my knowledge of the process, subject matter, composition, light, mark making, colour temperature, sense of perspective, scale etc… all come into alignment through careful application and thorough technical concentration. From the beginning of a painting, to the end, I might have spent three or four months on an image. With the application of well over fifty layers sometimes, they are carefully forged to the optimum standard.
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